


Resistance Is Futile

by segerge



Series: TASK FORCE [51]
Category: HERO Champions
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-28
Updated: 2017-03-28
Packaged: 2018-10-12 05:22:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 14,659
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10483017
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/segerge/pseuds/segerge
Summary: (August 2011) The X'Endron Network, a hive mind of robotic starships from published Champions Universe canon, downwarps into the Solar System while Bob & Julie attend GenCon 2011 as chaperones for their daughter (and that year's Industry Guest of Honor) Jillian.  Hilarity ensues.





	

**Author's Note:**

> **Warnings** : Language (including an F-bomb dropped immediately post-battle), gaming convention, Hollywood Hacking, aliens, intense action sequences
> 
> * * *
> 
> #### DRAMATIS PERSONAE
> 
> **heroes**
> 
>   * Julie Dormyer Hawkins (AKA Ladyhawk), Chairman of the Board of Directors for ProStar, disgustingly-powerful ninja with latent powers of temporal visualization
>   * Dr. Bob Hawkins (AKA Starforce), Senior Research Scientist for ProStar, disgustingly-powerful power-armor wearer/gadgeteer
>   * Jillian Hawkins, youngest child of Bob and Julie Hawkins, gaming demigodess and cyberkinetic
>   * Michael Oyler, Army reserve officer and gamer
>   * Angela Sato, USAF veteran and gamer, Michael's girlfriend
>   * Manuel Powers (AKA Booster), power-armor wearer
> 

> 
> **villains**
> 
>   * Darin Chu (AKA Wuxia Warrior), ch'i-based martial artist
>   * Sergei Varinnikov (AKA Warlord), President-for-Life of the Republic of Central Asia, disgustingly-powerful power-armor wearer
>   * Sir Edgar Essec, Supreme Serpent of VIPER
>   * James Harmon III (AKA Shadow Destroyer), alternate-timeline version of Dr. Destroyer
>   * Mechanon, expy of Ultron in the Champions Universe timeline
>   * the X'Endron Network, AI-controlled fleet of robots and robotic starships
>   * Sennacherib, AI of the original Dr. Destroyer
> 

> 
> **other**
> 
>   * Scott Chilbert, squad leader for PRIMUS' Indianapolis detachment
>   * Masahara Yoshihiro (AKA Tetsuronin), disgustingly-powerful power-armor wearer/gadgeteer
>   * Lt Gen Theodore Jameson, Jr., USA (AKA Ranger), Director of PRIMUS, disgustingly-powerful speedster
>   * Olivia d'Alembert (AKA Thelambra), supermodel/actress and wife of Ted Jameson, Empyrean/mentalist/luck-based psychokinetic
>   * Luis Powers, Program Manager at the Naval Avionics Laboratory in Indianapolis, Manuel's father
> 

> 
> **AUTHOR'S NOTE** : Telepathy is denoted by (( )), internal monologue by [[ ]]
> 
> * * *

(Hyatt Regency Hotel, Indianapolis IN. First morning of GenCon 2011)

(Jillian Hawkins is waiting on her parents Bob 'Starforce' Hawkins and Julie 'Ladyhawk' Hawkins, who are suiting up as their superheroic alter-egos from mid-1992)

 **Jillian** (disgusted): "Only my parents would use their old superhero costumes for cosplay."

 **Starforce** (wiggling a bit in his old 1992 armor): "And only your parents would complain about how destreum nanoweave shrinks over the course of two decades." (wiggling a bit more, then to Julie) "I don't remember it being *this* tight."

 **Ladyhawk** : "You need to work out more."

(she embraces Bob and they kiss)

 **Jillian** : "Eww, SQUI-ick! Get a room!"

 **Starforce** (still holding Julie): "We did. Where do you think we ARE right now?"

(Jillian rolls her eyes in disgust)

 **Ladyhawk** (to Jillian): "Dear, you should be grateful your parents are still sexually active at their current age."

(awkward pause)

 **Starforce** (deadpan, to Jillian): "With each other."

 **Jillian** (acidly): "Thank you for the clarification." (beat, then muttered) "And mental picture."

 **Ladyhawk** (smiles): "If both generations are quite through snarking at each other, let's go."

(Clan Hawkins leaves their hotel room and looks out over the central atrium of the Hyatt)

 **Jillian** : "SO embarassing attending my first gaming con with *chaperones*."

 **Starforce** : "We've been over this. GenCon insisted a parent accompany you when they discovered how old you actually were."

 **Jillian** : "But I'm a Guest of Honor!"

 **Ladyhawk** : "You're 14. GenCon could not legally contract with you to make this appearance regardless of your reputation in the gaming community."

 **Starforce** : "And I haven't been back here since I finalized Mom's estate." (beat, distantly) "Has it really been 12 years?"

 **Ladyhawk** (to Bob): "That reminds me. We're going to swing by the gravesites while we're here, aren't we?"

 **Starforce** : "Unless the schedule changes, I figured sometime tomorrow." (looks over the railing at the elevators) "Man, they're taking forever."

 **Jillian** : "Not like we're in a rush, Dad."

 **Starforce** : "Speak for yourself."

(he wraps arms around both Julie and Jillian)

 **Jillian** : "You are NOT about to do..."

 **Starforce** (lighting his forcefield): "Hang on."

(the three of them levitate over the railing, then drift down through the Atrium toward the lobby level)

 **Jillian** : "I thought you weren't allowed to use your powers in public anymore!"

 **Starforce** : "Funny thing about that. After I retired from superheroics, somebody at PRIMUS forgot to remove my official sanctioning from their records. As long as I'm still sanctioned, I can still legally use them in public."

 **Jillian** : "But that was like 20 years ago!"

 **Starforce** : "PRIMUS is a government agency. Need I say more?"

(they land on the lobby level to a smattering of applause. Bob releases them, laughs, and waves to the crowd)

 **Starforce** (reorienting himself to the nearest access walkway to the Convention Center): "This way, guys."

 **Jillian** : "You can still legally use your powers in public but except for just now still choose not to. I don't understand..."

 **Ladyhawk** (taking Bob's hand, to Jillian): "You can thank UNTIL for that."

 **Jillian** : "The creepy people who own the house across the street and follow us everywhere?"

 **Starforce** : "It's their way of intimidating me because of who my father was. They're always looking for a way to turn my virtual house arrest into something more real."

 **Jillian** : "They think you're going to turn into your own undead, ex-Nazi mad scientist father? Riiiight..."

 **Ladyhawk** : "The United Nations would prefer to act on their own fears instead of decades of evidence to the contrary."

 **Jillian** : "That's not fair!"

 **Ladyhawk** : "Life *isn't* fair, dear."

 **Starforce** : "Which is why you have chaperones accompanying you on what should be the best day of your life."

(Jillian looks at her father in shock)

 **Starforce** (continuing): "This will come as a life-changing shock to you, but both your mother and I were your age once. You don't want us around. We get it."

(they are now across Maryland Street and walking through Circle Center. As they make the turn for the Convention Center, a fanboy looks at Clan Hawkins and stops them)

 **Fanboy** : "Wow, good job on the Starforce suit!"

 **Starforce** : "Thank you."

 **Fanboy** : "How long did it take you to build that?"

 **Starforce** : "About a month." (beat) "Back in 1992."

 **Fanboy** : "Cool. Can I take a picture of you guys?"

(Bob looks at Julie and Jillian. Julie nods. Jillian shakes her head)

 **Starforce** (smiling to Jillian): "Then get out of the field of view."

(Jillian does, disgustedly. Bob and Julie wrap an arm around each other and smile. Fan takes the shot)

 **Fanboy** : "Thanks. See ya!"

 **Starforce** : "You're welcome!" (beat, to Julie) "Do they NOT teach history anymore? I expected more of a nerdgasm over the time hack I gave him."

 **Jillian** : "Geez, Dad..."

* * *

(East Walkway entrance, Indiana Convention Center. Five minutes later)

(Bob, Julie, and Jillian have cleared the initial check-in point and are now entering the Convention Center)

 **Starforce** : "Okay, this is beginning to look familiar."

 **Jillian** : "Excuse me?"

 **Starforce** : "We're in the part of the Convention Center that existed back when I was in the Purdue Varsity Glee Club."

 **Jillian** (looking around): "Looks kinda bland."

 **Starforce** : "It's undergone several rounds of renovation since the late 1970's." (beat, while they move around an impromptu cosplay photoshoot in front of one of the Sagamore Ballroom entrances) "The Vendor's Area is in the location the RCA Dome used to occupy, and we're still a quarter-mile away from where THAT is."

 **Jillian** (beat): "Oh."

 **Ladyhawk** : "And I thought the Dallas Convention Center was big..."

 **Starforce** : "You have *no* idea."

(A Starforce cosplayer blocks their progress through the Convention Center short of the escalator down to the ground floor)

 **Ladyhawk** : "Excuse us?"

 **Cosplayer** (to Bob): "Dude. Your Starforce battlesuit needs work."

 **Starforce** : "Excuse me?"

 **Cosplayer** : "That's a *very* poor imitation of his suit at the Battle of Detroit..."

(Bob reaches a hand toward the obnoxious cosplayer. The cosplayer suddenly finds himself three feet in the air)

 **Starforce** : "Do tell."

(Bob cuts his TK, and the obnoxious cosplayer finds himself on his butt in the middle of the throng. Laughter and cheers from the surrounding throng, especially from a tall and muscular bald-shaved man and his oriental-looking female friend)

 **Female** (handing a program book to Bob): "Dr. Hawkins, could you sign my GenCon program?"

 **Starforce** : "You KNOW me?"

 **Female** : "I know of you. And 8 years ago, your holographic computer tech saved a lot of lives in Iraq."

 **Starforce** (taking the book from the female): "Glad I could be of service, uh..."

 **Female** : "Angela Sato. Air Force vet. I used your tech to compile intel for both Army and Air Force missions during the Iraq war."

 **Starforce** (signing Angela's program): "The Air Force *were* first adopters of my holographic computing tech back in the late 1970's..."

 **Tall Muscular Man** (offers hand): "You're a Purdue grad, sir?"

 **Starforce** (shakes hand): "Class of 1982."

 **Tall Muscular Man** : "Class of 2001, myself. Mike Oyler."

 **Starforce** (beat, looks at Mike): "Army?"

 **Mike** : "Reserves. ROTC scholarship, led troops in Iraq in '03."

 **Starforce** : "Nothing wrong with that. Ted Jameson was an Army reservist when he led TASK FORCE, and led troops in Desert Storm."

 **Angela** : "So what brings you guys to GenCon?"

 **Starforce** (pointing to Jillian): "Our daughter is the industry Guest of Honor this year."

 **Ladyhawk** (pointing at Bob): "Nerd-boy here is also sort of from Indianapolis. He's been wanting to come for years."

(laughter. They get on the escalator)

 **Mike** (to Jillian): "So you wrote a game?"

 **Jillian** : "Yes."

 **Mike** : "Which one?"

 **Jillian** : " _Call of Duty: Caped Crusaders_ "

(stunned pause)

 **Angela** : "NO WAY!!"

 **Mike** : "I LOVE that mod!!"

(as they reach the bottom of the escalator, there is the increasing sound and flash of blaster fire, followed by screaming. A man in loose martial-arts clothes is literally running across the heads of the crowd navigating its way through the Convention Center, dodging bolts of energy from a heavy rifle wielded by a crude, flying power-armor wearer)

 **Martial-Arts Man** (taunting the power-armor wearer over his shoulder): "You'll have to do better than that, Booster!"

(that's not what Bob's focusing on right now. He's focusing on the power-armor wearer)

 **Starforce** (paling): "Good God, that's a military-grade PULSON RIFLE he's using!"

(Starforce catches Booster with his TK, yanking the arm holding the rifle toward the ceiling *especially* hard)

 **Booster** (struggling): "LET ME GO! HE'S GETTING AWAY!"

 **Ladyhawk** (to Starforce): "Finish up here. I'll go retrieve Captain Wire-Fu."

(Ladyhawk vanishes into the crowd as Starforce slowly levitates above the crowd to stare Booster down)

 **Starforce** : "Son, in my career I've killed at least 30 people on *this* planet that I know of. If you had hit somebody in the crowd below us, you would have become number 31." /* He's actually about a hundred low, because he's forgetting about what he did to Al-Mushanat Jawhira in "The Jewel of Awad" */

(Booster's eyes grow wide with both recognitition and fear)

 **Booster** : "You're... Starforce!"

 **Starforce** : "Finally! *Somebody* remembers me..."

 **Booster** : "But... but... you're retired!"

 **Starforce** : "Right now, son, I'm extremely PISSED." (indicating the gathering crowd below him, voice becoming deep and menacing) "My DAUGHTER was one of your prospective casualties."

(tense pause. Booster shuts down his armor and his gun, being on the receiving end of a 14d6 PRE attack)

 **Starforce** : "Thank you."

(Ladyhawk chooses this moment to stroll back over, the martial artist she was chasing draped over her shoulder unconscious)

 **Ladyhawk** : "Is there a bag limit for supervillains today?"

* * *

(Security Office, Indiana Convention Center. 15 minutes later)

(Starforce is nursemaiding both the Martial Arts guy and Booster, who are being detained until PRIMUS can show up)

 **Starforce** (glaring at his charges): "I grew up in this city. I haven't been back since my step-parents died. I've been wanting to attend GenCon for *years*." (beat, angry) "And the two of you had to go and RUIN my visit by attempting to re-enact the Dark Age of Comic Books with 10,000 bystanders as the backstop for your weapons!!"

(both detainees cringe under Starforce's voice)

 **Starforce** (looking at the Martial Artist, voice deep and menacing): "Do you have a NAME, son?"

 **Martial Arts Man** (at the receiving end of a 13d6 PRE attack): "D-D-Darin. Darin Chu."

 **Booster** : "The supervillain Wuxia Warrior..."

 **Starforce** (roaring at Booster): "SHUT UP!!"

(frightened pause, held gaze)

 **Starforce** (to Booster): "You look familiar with your helmet off. Do YOU have a name?"

 **Booster** (frightened): "Manuel Powers."

 **Starforce** : "There was a Luis Powers who was a classmate of mine at Broad Ripple High School..."

 **Booster** : "That's my father."

(awkward pause, held gaze)

 **Starforce** : "Well how about that..."

(A squad of PRIMUS agents interrupts the conversation by entering the Security Office at that time)

 **Agent** : "Dr. Hawkins? Scott Chilbert, PRIMUS Indy. Thank you for watching over them until we could get here."

 **Starforce** (standing): "Do you need my Proof of Sanctioning?"

 **Chilbert** : "No, sir. PRIMUS HQ has already confirmed that for both you and your wife."

 **Starforce** (pointing at Booster and Wuxia Warrior): "What about them?"

 **Chilbert** (beat): "Booster's supposed to be a hero, but this isn't the first time he's been guilty of public endangerment in his pursuit of Wuxia Warrior. He's unsanctioned, and was likely to remain that way even before today's incident."

(awkward pause as Starforce looks at Booster)

 **Starforce** (small voice, falsetto): "Busted..."

 **Chilbert** : "If I can have a couple more minutes of your time, Doctor, I need to take a statement from you concerning the superbattle you broke up this morning."

 **Starforce** : "Sure."

(he glares angrily at Booster and Wuxia Warrior, who wilt some more under his stare)

 **Starforce** : "It's not like I had anything I was planning on doing today, anyway."

(shooting one final, angry glare at Booster and Wuxia Warrior, he follows the agent into a side office)

* * *

(Indiana Convention Center. Half an hour later)

(Starforce has finally caught up with Ladyhawk and Jillian on the eastern side of the Vendor's Area)

 **Jillian** : "Hey, Dad."

 **Starforce** : "Miss me, guys?"

 **Jillian** : "I'm sorry I doubted you on the size of this con. I'm almost impressed."

 **Ladyhawk** (to Starforce): "So you've been released on your own recognizance?"

 **Starforce** : "Finally."

 **Ladyhawk** : "What was with those two, anyway?"

 **Starforce** : "The martial artist is like you only without the Danger Sense, equipment load-out, or obscene skill set. He's been responsible for petty thefts across the Indy metro area for over a year." (beat) "His pursuer is another matter altogether."

 **Ladyhawk** : "Really, now? Unpack, Nerd-boy."

 **Starforce** : "The powered-armor wearer is the son of a classmate of mine from Broad Ripple High School."

 **Jillian** : "Dad has a rival?"

 **Starforce** : "If there was a rivalry, it was only one-way. Luis was always finishing second to me in Science Fairs all through Elementary School and Junior High. I lost track of him when I went to Purdue. Saw that he was on Facebook a couple of years ago, but he never acknowledged my friend request."

(Ladyhawk's Danger Sense pulses)

 **Ladyhawk** (muttered, looking around): "What the..."

 **Starforce** : "What's wrong?"

(there is a sudden uptick in conversation among the group of gamers and convention goers the Hawkins' are now approaching. They look agitated as they scroll at their phones)

 **Ladyhawk** (barging into the group): "What's wrong?"

 **Random Gamer** (making his phone visible to Ladyhawk): "Aliens!"

(the gamer has a CNN news app open. 'SPECIAL BULLETIN' banners are on its top and bottom)

 **Phone** : "This is CNN Center in Atlanta. We have just been informed by the North American Air Defense Command that an alien fleet has just dropped sublight and is advancing on Earth..."

(shocked pause, held gaze)

 **Starforce** (small voice): "Even the entire Galaxy doesn't want me to attend GenCon..."

 **Ladyhawk** (grabbing Starforce's arm): "No time to cry, Nerd-boy! We need to find a computer to find out more!"

 **Jillian** (looking to one side): "How about over there?"

(Starforce and Ladyhawk look in the direction Jillian is pointing. She's pointing at the BBC America booth, dressed to look like Torchwood One HQ at Canary Wharf from _Doctor Who_ , which is amply equipped with computers)

 **Starforce** : "Perfect!"

(Ladyhawk somehow keeps him from flash-stepping over on his own, so they run into the booth)

 **Starforce** : "Excuse me, coming through, national emergency, sorry about your feet ma'am, pardon me..."

(they arrive at the nearest computer with minimal collateral damage or hurt feelings. Mike Oyler and Angela Sato from the first scene of this episode are already in the booth and register Starforce and Ladyhawk's disruptive entrance)

 **Mike** (to Jillian): "Are they here because of the news bulletin?"

 **Jillian** (disgusted): "No matter *how* many years it's been, you can't take the superhero out of the parents."

 **Angela** (trying to look over Starforce's shoulder): "Hush, both of you!"

(Starforce is frantically typing on the computer he's just commandeered. Beat, then multiple windows spring open)

 **Starforce** (muttered): "Damn, wish I had multiple monitors..."

 **Booth Babe** : "We can fix that for you, sir!"

 **Angela** (to the Booth Babe): "I'll help!"

(Angela and the Booth Babe start cannibalizing the other computer kiosks at the BBC America booth while Jillian finally has a chance to see what her father has done)

 **Jillian** (murmured, impressed): "A back door into NORAD? Go, Dad!"

 **Starforce** (looking through multiple application windows): "Oh, crap... oh, crap... oh, crap..."

 **Ladyhawk** : "What? What is is?"

(Starforce looks up from the computer. What can be seen of his face from around the Mark IV battlesuit's mask is white as a sheet)

 **Starforce** : "It's the X'Endron Network. And they're here to conquer Earth."

* * *

(BBC America Booth, GenCon. Ten minutes later)

(Starforce and Jillian are working frantically at two computers, each equipped with extra monitors cannibalized from the other kiosks. There is a sizable crowd now gathered at the booth as Ladyhawk, Booster, Wuxia Warrior, and the PRIMUS squad which had been there to take the latter two into custody work their way over to the computers)

 **Ladyhawk** : "Are you SURE about this, Nerd-boy?"

 **Starforce** : "We're gonna need superhumans to board their fleet and stop them. Unfortunately, they were the only ones I knew other than us who were attending today..."

 **Wuxia Warrior** (interrupting, indignant): "HEY!"

 **Ladyhawk** : "You're lucky PRIMUS agreed to a conditional release."

 **Wuxia Warrior** : "Only because our jailers came with us..."

 **Mike** : "Dr. Hawkins? Sir?"

 **Starforce** : "What?"

 **Angela** : "We're both crack shots. We can help."

 **Starforce** : "This isn't a video game. You might get killed..."

 **Mike** : "Military veterans, hello?"

 **Angela** : "I'm pretty sure we can be the judge of what's too dangerous for us."

(tense pause. Starforce and Ladyhawk look at each other)

 **Ladyhawk** : "Okay, then. You're in."

 **Mike/Angela** : "Thank you!"

 **Ladyhawk** : "Nerd-boy. What do we know?"

 **Starforce** : "From the sensor postmortem Jillian pulled up for me, they originally came across the warp limit well outside the ecliptic plane. They then immediately switched to displacer drive to micro-jump deeper in-system."

 **Booster** : "Displacer drive?"

 **Starforce** : "Similar to what Central Asia is installing in all their ships, stolen from ProStar theta-boson technology. Try to keep up!"

 **Ladyhawk** : "Nerd-boy? FOCUS! Why didn't your forts at the Lunar poles stop them?"

 **Starforce** (beat): "By the time the forts could get a sensor lock, they were already inside lunar orbit. That takes the long-range missiles out of play!"

 **Ladyhawk** : "The railguns are still usable inside the Moon's orbit..."

 **Starforce** (interrupting): "Only when the target isn't within one degree of Earth's position in the lunar sky! Look at their approach trajectory."

(now that everyone has the explanation, they see that the Earth, X'Endron fleet, and Moon form a straight line)

 **Starforce** : "It's almost like *somebody* told them about our deep-space defenses and their limitations!"

 **Mike** : "What do we do, sir?"

 **Starforce** : "As soon as we locate their flagship, we lead a commando raid onboard to reprogram the X'Endron to avoid Earth."

 **Angela** : "But how are we going to get there?"

(beat. Starforce and Ladyhawk look at each other. Even with not being a telepath, she knows instantly how Starforce intends to board the X'Endron Flagship once located)

 **Ladyhawk** (aghast): "Bob, you CAN'T be serious!"

 **Starforce** : "You would prefer Sergei or Destroyer or Mechanon beating us to it and hacking the X'Endron THEMSELVES?"

(tense pause, held gaze)

 **Ladyhawk** : "Then call Ted. We're going to need some cleanup work post-mission, if you know what I mean?"

 **Starforce** (embarrased): "I... don't have his number."

 **Ladyhawk** : "You don't have Ted's private work number on your comm system?"

 **Starforce** : "1992-era battle armor. Duh..."

 **Jillian** (diving for the keyboard of the commandeered laptop): "Oh for God's sake."

(she types frantically for a minute, then a comm window opens. An electronic ringing sound can be heard, then the video feed activates to show Ted 'Ranger' Jameson down in the Ops pit of PRIMUS HQ in Washington DC)

 **Ranger** : "Bob, Julie, this had better be important!"

 **Ladyhawk** : "We have a plan to deal with the X'Endron."

(tense pause, held gaze)

 **Ranger** : "You have my attention."

 **Starforce** : "Admittedly, it's a very *bad* plan right now, because we're still improvising like crazy to come up with the details."

 **Ranger** : "What do you need from PRIMUS?"

 **Starforce** : "To beat everyone else to the X'Endron, we're going to have to do something so insanely stupid that we'll need Olivia's help to correct it once we're done."

 **Ladyhawk** : "If you know what we mean?"

(Ted's eyes widen in alarm. He's just figured out *exactly* what Starforce and Ladyhawk intend to do)

 **Ranger** (shocked): "You CANNOT be serious!"

 **Starforce** (coldly): "I've seen the same intel on the X'Endron Network that you have, Ted. We're WELL past the Godzilla Threshold right now to be worried about keeping the Portal secure!"

 **Booster** : "What's a portal?"

 **Ladyhawk** : "Hush."

(tense pause, held gaze between Starforce and Ted)

 **Ranger** : "Do what you have to. Olivia and I will handle cleanup afterwards."

 **Ladyhawk** : "Thank you, Ted."

 **Ranger** : "Just so you're aware, the Central Asian space force has broken orbit on an intercept trajectory with the X'Endron. NORAD has also just detected a sizable fleet of small spacecraft which have taken off from Japan."

 **Starforce** : "Tetsuronin?"

 **Ranger** : "Radar and energy signature is consistent with the drone fighters he built to take on Istvatha V'Han and the Q'laar."

 **Ladyhawk** : "So in other words, everyone and their mother are going to try to take over the X'Endron?"

 **Starforce** : "Won't THAT be ironic? We end up protecting the X'Endron from *Earth*..."

 **Ranger** : "Good luck, guys."

(Ted disconnects the video feed. Starforce and Ladyhawk look at each other for a moment)

 **Starforce** (to a BBC booth babe): "Where's the nearest service corridor to here?"

 **Booth Babe** (pointing to the back curtain): "The door's behind that curtain, sir."

 **Ladyhawk** : "Thank you." (to Jillian, Mike, Angela, Booster, Wuxia Warrior, and the PRIMUS agents) "Follow us, please?"

(mystified, everyone designated by Ladyhawk follows her and Starforce out through the back of the BBC America booth. Sure enough, there's a double door waiting for them. Starforce forces it open with casual strength)

 **Starforce** : "Okay, everyone. Hang on to your butts." (into mask radio) "House? Portal to home, these coordinates."

(beat, then a portal swirls open in front of Starforce)

 **Mike** : "Whoa!"

 **Booster** : "Theta-bosons?"

 **Starforce** : "No time to explain. Everyone, follow me."

(he steps through the portal. Beat, then everyone else follows him through)

* * *

(Stately Dormyer Manor Mark II, Lakewood Village, TX. Ten minutes later)

(Bob, Julie, Mike, Angela, Booster, Wuxia Warrior, and the squad from PRIMUS Indy are all crowded around the Holotank in the Simulator Room of Bob's private laboratories underneath the manor. Bob and Julie have switched their 1992 superheroic kit for their current superheroic kit. There is a cart with bigger blaster rifles on it also in the room)

 **Jillian** : "Where ARE we?"

 **Ladyhawk** : "We're back home, 10 meters underneath the Manor."

 **Mike** (holding a spare armor blank for Ranger): "Are you sure this will fit, Dr. Hawkins?"

 **Starforce** : "No."

 **Angela** (holding a spare armor blank for Ladyhawk): "Where did you get these?"

 **Booster** : "And why did both of you change into more modern armor?"

 **Ladyhawk** : "You don't need to know." (beat, to Wuxia Warrior) "Are you SURE you don't need armor?"

 **Wuxia Warrior** (overconfident): "You're assuming our opponents can even HIT me!"

 **Ladyhawk** : "I did."

(that stops Wuxia Warrior's overconfidence dead in its tracks. Ladyhawk uses the silence to hand blaster rifles to Mike, Angela, and the PRIMUS agents)

 **Chilbert** : "Ma'am? Our weapons are good enough..."

 **Ladyhawk** : "No, they arent." (hefts the blaster rifle she was trying to hand him) "It's single-shot, area-effect. If you split into two 3-man teams and coordinate your fire appropriately, even hard targets will go down in one to two salvos." /* built as an RKA, Area of Effect (thin cone), Penetratingx2. */

 **Chilbert** : "Okay, now we're talking!" (looks at Mike) "You look like you're Army."

 **Mike** : "Reservist. Led troops in Iraq."

 **Chilbert** (pointing to two of his men): "Diaz, Harter, you're with Mr. Oyler. Ms. Sato, you're with me."

(beat, then everyone forms up into their teams while switching weapons)

 **Ladyhawk** : "Okay guys, listen up. I'm team lead for this mission. If something happens to me, Mr. Oyler takes over."

 **Mike** : "Not Starforce?"

 **Starforce** : "I'm a scientist, not a tactician. I'm going to be needed to do tech things, anyway while we're onboard." (to Booster) "You built your own armor?"

 **Booster** (beat): "Dad started it for me." (beat, firm) "But I've been able to improve on it since then!"

 **Starforce** : "Electronics and programming?"

 **Booster** : "Better."

(with a SNIKT!, a logic probe springs from the left wrist of his armor)

 **Booster** : "Cyberkinesis."

 **Starforce** : "Good. You'll be with me."

 **Jillian** (impressed, to Booster): "Wow. Dinner?"

 **Ladyhawk** : "He's 23." (leaning into Jillian's face) "HELL. No."

(Mike and Angela have their armor blanks on by now)

 **Mike** : "So what's the deal with the X'Endron?"

 **Booster** : "Yeah, what is it with these aliens that has you guys so... *scared*?"

 **Starforce** : "Remember the Borg from _Star Trek_?"

(tense pause, as the reference registers with the non-Hawkins people in the Simulator Room)

 **Booster** : "Oh."

 **Starforce** (grimly): "Yeah."

 **Jillian** : "A better analogy might be the Reapers from _Mass Effect_."

 **Angela** (beat, eyes wide): "That IS worse."

 **Starforce** (to Jillian, annoyed): "They don't have mind control over organics. Stop scaring everybody."

 **Jillian** (beat): "Heretic Geth, then."

 **Mike** : "Better."

 **Angela** : "Not by much."

 **Starforce** : "Quick briefing, then. Our intel on the X'Endron comes via PRIMUS and the Ixendarans. Decades ago, a technician at the fleet yards around Ixendar accidentally allowed an artificially intelligent computer to develop too much sentience and free will. Disgusted with the thought of working for what it perceived to be flawed biologicals, the AI commandeered one of the most advanced ships in the Ixendaran fleet of that era and fled into interstellar space."

 **Booster** : "Crap!"

 **Starforce** : "That one AI was the progenitor of what is now called the X’endron Network."

 **Angela** : "Does it have a homeworld?"

 **Starforce** : "No. Nor does it need one. The X'Endron consist of robots and robotic starships that form a now-vast fleet that can congregate or separate as needed."

 **Mike** : "Isn't that a lot of equipment that it needs to be maintaining? If it's a fleet, it needs somewhere to rebuild itself."

 **Starforce** : "Given a planetismal belt with the right elements and enough time, each starship of the X'Endron can become a Von Neumann machine on demand, repairing itself or even reproducing depending on the Network's needs."

 **Wuxia Warrior** : "So why are they here?"

 **Angela** : "Perhaps they think that they can find their creator here?"

 **Starforce** : "This ain't _Star Trek: The Motion Picture_."

 **Mike** (to Ladyhawk): "So what IS our plan?"

 **Ladyhawk** (indicating Starforce and Booster): "As soon as Nerd-boy and his faithful assistant Igor find their flagship, we beam on board."

 **Starforce** (instinctively): "It's pronounced EYE-gor."

(Ladyhawk hits Starforce)

 **Jillian** : "If they have true distributed processing, they won't HAVE a command node or flagship."

 **Ladyhawk** : "Once onboard the target, we splice in a quantum entanglement comm node to its network. We then defend the node from all comers while Jillian and anyone she can get to help her down here on Earth network into the other end of the quantum connection and hack the X'Endron."

 **Booster** : "Can we even DO that? This is alien programming, NOT _Independence Day_!"

 **Jillian** (disgusted): "Oh, please. It's Ixendaran programming!"

 **Angela** (deadpan): "I'll take that to be a 'yes,' then."

 **Ladyhawk** (to Jillian): "We'll need to port you back to Indianapolis with the quantum node's twin."

 **Jillian** : "Good. I have friends waiting for me there to help."

(tense pause, held gaze)

 **Ladyhawk** : "Okay, then. Let's move out, people!"

* * *

(CASV _Tashkent_ , Approaching the X'Endron Network. One minute later) 

(Sergei 'Warlord' Varinnikov sits in the CIC of his new flagship, monitoring his Space Force's intercept orbit with the X'Endron)

 **Warlord** : "Analiz?" /* Analysis? */

 **Bridge Bunny 1** : "Vneshniye korpusa sootvetstvuyut iksendarovskomu zvezdoletu klassa drednout. Vnutrenniye energeticheskiye podpisi oboikh shchitov i oruzhiya sootvetstvuyut kharakteristikam zvezdnogo galeona Varanyi Star Galleon" /* Outer hulls consistent with the Ixendaran dreadnought-class starship. Internal energy signatures of both shields and weaponry match those of a Varanyi Star Galleon */

 **Bridge Bunny 2** (shocked): "Bozhe'!"

 **Warlord** : "Kak vy byli leytenantom. Vse korabli, derzhat' kurs i uskoreniye, podderzhivayut polnyye elektronnyye kontrmery na peredovykh otryadakh!" /* As you were Lieutenant. All ships, hold course and acceleration, maintain full electronic countermeasures on the vanguard formations! */

 **Bridge Bunny 3** (beat): "Vse korabli podtverzhdayut." /* All ships acknowledge. */

 **Warlord** (leaning back in his command chair): "Kak tol'ko my doberemsya do svoyego flagmana, my pobedim." /* Once we get to their flagship, we win. */

* * *

(VIPER World Headquarters, somewhere in the Mbang Range of Western Africa. Simultaneous with previous scene)

(there is a buzzer as Sir Edgar Essec enters his office from the secret door behind the bookcase. He looks invigorated, having just had his monthly dose of the fumes of Nama)

 **Essec** : "Enter."

(an agent enters, bearing an iPad)

 **Agent** : "The Council of 30 wonders why we are not making an attempt to hack the warfleet approaching Earth."

 **Essec** : "They refer to the X'Endron Network?"

 **Agent** : "Yes, Supreme Serpent."

(tense pause)

 **Essec** : "Ask the Council why VIPER should expend its manpower, capital, and resources on 'hacking' the X'Endron when there are other powers more than willing to expend THEIR manpower, capital, and resources on the same task instead?"

 **Agent** : "I don't understand..."

 **Essec** (interrupting): "Of course you don't. If Central Asia or Japan or America succeed in their attempts to pirate ships from the X'Endron, they will need to park them somewhere near. Somewhere like low Earth orbit." (beat) "Somewhere where VIPER can pirate them MUCH easier and with less effort than they are expending right now between the Earth and the Moon."

(the agent is speechless)

 **Essec** : "Tell the Council that after the powers of the present exhaust themselves in their current attacks on the X'Endron, the power of the future will strike!"

 **Agent** (bowing): "Yes, Supreme Serpent."

(the agent leaves)

 **Essec** (over steepled hands): "The Snake shall reap the rewards of foolish Man's harvest."

* * *

(X'Endron Flagship, 100,000 kilometers from Earth. Simultaneous with previous scene)

(the pinkish-white swirl collapses behind the assault team which has just walked through it)

 **Booster** (impressed): "What's the *range* of the portal?"

 **Ladyhawk** : "Long enough. Which way?"

(beat, while Booster tries to sense the flow of data patterns in a nearby bulkhead)

 **Booster** (pointing): "That way."

 **Ladyhawk** : "Everyone, move out. Starforce, take point. Fire teams, cover him."

(the team creeps silently down the corridor in the indicated direction for a minute)

 **Angela** (murmured): "Awfully nice for the X'Endron to be giving us a breathable atmosphere."

 **Starforce** (murmured): "They supposedly use biological slaves to do maintenance if they're short on robots or need to teach robots how to do something."

(Ladyhawk's Danger Sense screams for something about to happen behind them just as they pass through a corridor intersection)

 **Ladyhawk** (katanas leaping into her hands): "FIRE TEAMS! TAKE COVER!!"

(Mike's fire team takes the right branch, Agent Chilbert's team the left. Eight silvery orbs hover in the corridor behind them)

 **Booster** : "What ARE those?"

(A robot now drifts into their corridor from an intersection 20 meters behind them. It sort of appears humanoid, if you ignore the the facts that it's levitating, has a translucent globe where its head should be, and a second pair of arms where its legs should be)

 **Wuxia Warrior** : "Are those -- ARMS where its legs should be?"

 **Starforce** (forcebeams warming up for discharge): "A Cylon Quaddie. Glen Larson, Lois McMaster Bujold, call your offices."

(Segment 1. The X'Endron robot, like all dangerously genre-savvy villains out of combat, keeps a held action ready while only half-moving. Two of the orbs fall back and orbit around the robot , while three of the other six open fire on our heroes. They all miss, partly because Wuxia Warrior has aborted his segment 2 action to a Martial Dodge)

(segment 2, effective DEX 35. Ladyhawk crouches and holds her phase, hearing Starforce's forcebeam warming up behind her)

(DEX 30. Starforce fires a 32d6 TK Offensive Strike at the robot. The forcebeam shreds the force wall with which an orb tried to block it like tissue paper and does 90 STUN after defenses to the robot. The robot -- and all surviving orbs -- fall to the ground, inert)

(Ladyhawk takes her held action and, using her katanas, makes sure the robot can't move ever again)

(tense pause, held gaze as Ladyhawk sprints back to the team)

 **Mike** : "Aim at the robot next time, not the orbs. Lesson learned."

 **Booster** (to Starforce): "You saw the comm traffic too, Dr. Hawkins?"

 **Starforce** : "Yep."

 **Ladyhawk** : "We need to assume it sent a contact report out. Let's get the *lead* out, people, MOVE!"

(the team heads deeper into the X'Endron Flagship, at a somewhat quicker pace than before)

* * *

(CASV _Tashkent_ , 50,000 kilometers from Earth. Five minutes later) 

**Bridge Bunny 1** : "Obnaruzhen perekhodnyy protsess, nesushchiy 180 na 0, diapazon 10 000! Ochen' malen'kiy, no moshchnyy." /* Energy transient detected, bearing 180 by 0, range 10,000! Very small but powerful. */

 **Warlord** : "Supergeroy? Supervayon?" /* Superhero? Supervillain? */

 **Bridge Bunny 1** : "Biblioteka ugroz podkhodit dlya Mekhanona!" /* Threat library gets a match for Mechanon! */

 **Warlord** : "Chto takoye targeting?" /* What is it targeting? */

 **Bridge Bunny 1** : "Poyavlyayetsya, chtoby byt' flagmanom X'Endron, ser!" /* Appears to be the X'Endron Flagship, sir! */

 **Warlord** (slamming fist against a repeater column): "Der'mo!"

* * *

(X'Endron Flagship, 45,000 kilometers from Earth. 30 seconds later)

(the team is stopped by a double door at another intersection. Ladyhawk has her wrist console open on her left arm as she holds it up to what appears to be the door's locking mechanism in its middle)

 **Wuxia Warrior** : "Mrs. Hawkins? That's alien tech..."

 **Ladyhawk** : "I speak lock. There are only so many ways you can design something to keep a door secure."

 **Starforce** (deadpan): "What she's trying to say is that even the X'Endron have to obey the laws of science and engineering..."

(the deck shakes under their feet, almost as if something has hit the Flagship)

 **Chilbert** : "What was that?"

 **Ladyhawk** (slamming her wrist console shut as her Danger Sense screams): "We've been boarded!"

 **Mike** (to Chilbert): "Your team, take the left cross. Mine will take the right. Just like last time."

(awkward pause, then Chilbert motions his team to the left)

 **Chilbert** (smiling, to Mike): "That came out just a little bit *too* easy now, didn't it?"

 **Mike** (with his team to the right): "This is better than Anbar was. Trust me."

(there is more shuddering beneath their feet, almost as if someone is literally punching their way through the Flagship)

 **Starforce** (stepping through spectral filters): "Uh, Ninjette? We better hide, too."

(beat, then Ladyhawk points at Wuxia Warrior and Booster, then to Chilbert's team. She and Starforce team up with Mike's team)

 **Ladyhawk** : "Who are we facing?"

 **Starforce** : "Mechanon. The energy signature's unmistakable."

 **Ladyhawk** : "This keeps getting better and better..."

(the sound of metallic feet against the deck can now be heard approaching their position)

 **Ladyhawk** (murmured while taking and priming an energy shuriken): "Fire teams, soften it up. Nerd-boy and I will finish him off."

(nervous nods from both fire teams)

 **Booster** : "What about me and Darin?"

 **Ladyhawk** (taking her Grapple Gun in her other hand): "We're here to hack the X'Endron. Not fight Mechanon. Stay back."

(the metallic-sounding footsteps are louder now. Ladyhawk starts a three-second countdown with her fingers while still holding her energy shuriken. Tense pause)

(Ladyhawk's countdown reaches zero)

(segment 1. Both fire teams have a held action and spring into the main corridor at the same time. Mechanon fills the corridor 10 meters away. Chilbert's fire team misses with all their shots, Mike's fire team hits twice for a total of 2 BODY to Mechanon's body after defenses)

(segment 2, effective DEX 35. Ladyhawk attacks with an multiple attack -- energy shuriken set for Taser and Grapple Gun firing on Bola-line setting. Since she's had the time, she has also used the "Foresight Competence" slot of her Partially Four-Dimensional multipower to boost her OCV from 14 to 18. She hits with both. Mechanon takes 29 STUN as a 4 DEF/3 BODY cable wraps itself around its legs)

(effective DEX 33. Mechanon wastes his first phase breaking out of Ladyhawk's entangle)

(DEX 30. Starforce opens up with a 32d6 TK Offensive Strike. Mechanon takes a total of 39 STUN after all defenses in both its body and head)

(segment 3, effective DEX 35. Ladyhawk's Danger Sense screams warning for what Mechanon is about to do)

 **Ladyhawk** (katanas out, charging Mechanon): "CLOSE YOUR EYES!!"

(she hits twice with her katanas for a total of 2 BODY after defenses)

(effective DEX 33. Only Mike, Angela, and Starforce have closed their eyes by the time Mechanon cuts loose with 13d6 APx2 flash-bang. Of our heroes, only Ladyhawk and those three still have their sight, and only Ladyhawk and Starforce are still on their feet. Everyone else is on their butts, and all are now deaf for the rest of combat)

(DEX 30. Starforce hits Mechanon with a multiple-attack TK Offensive Strike/Molecular Disruptor for 37 more STUN. Mechanon is also now down to 50% resistant Damage Reduction for the rest of the turn)

(DEX 15. Spots still dancing in front of their eyes, Mike and Angela attempt to aim their blaster rifles at Mechanon. Mike holds a hand up to indicate to Angela that they need to wait, and she nods)

(segment 5, effective DEX 35. Tumbling free of Mechanon, Ladyhawk aborts to an Artful Dodge while switching katanas for another two energy shuriken)

(effective DEX 33. Mechanon misses Ladyhawk with a 20d6 Area-effect Phasic Bolt as she parkours up onto the ceiling)

(DEX 30. Starforce misses with another TK Offensive Strike)

(segment 6, effective DEX 35. Still upside-down on the ceiling thanks to the magic of Clinging, Ladyhawk hits Mechanon with both energy shuriken, this time set for Penetrating RKA, for a total of 4 BODY)

(effective DEX 33. Mechanon hits Ladyhawk with another 20d6 area-effect Phasic Bolt for 11 STUN after defenses, knocking her off the ceiling. Making her Breakfall roll, she lands on her feet)

(DEX 30. Starforce somehow misses his roll to be enraged and hits with another 32d6 TK Offensive Strike for 66 STUN after all defenses. Falling to its knees, Mechanon is CON-stunned)

(DEX 15. Mike and Angela both hit with their blasters for a total of 4 BODY after all defenses)

(segment 8, effective DEX 35. Ladyhawk slams an energy shuriken set for Taser mode into Mechanon's head for another 29 STUN. Mechanon is down to 10 STUN)

(effective DEX 33. Mechanon recovers from being stunned)

(DEX 30. Starforce is reading the energy patterns now coming from Mechanon and recognizes what is about to happen. He performs a TK Martial Throw on Mechanon's body head-first into the door from the beginning of the scene for 13 STUN after all defenses. Mechanon slumps to the deck, unconscious)

(Ladyhawk's eyes go wide. She dives for cover)

(ka-BOOOOOOM!!!)

(the self-destruct charge in Mechanon's chassis goes off, reducing Mechanon to metallic ash. Stunned pause, held gaze as everyone's hearing and sight finally return)

 **Ladyhawk** : "Everyone all right?"

(Mike looks at Angela, who nods)

 **Mike** : "Give us a moment."

 **Chilbert** (shaking his head): "Fuckin' A, my EARS!"

(beat, then the team laughs)

 **Wuxia Warrior** (looking at Mechanon's remains): "On the bright side, Mechanon DID open the door for us!"

(Indeed it has. A humanoid-sized hole has been blown in the door Ladyhawk was attempting to open, revealing what appears to be some sort of control room)

 **Ladyhawk** : "Jackpot, people. Let's do what we came to do."

(the team streams into the control room)

* * *

(Approaching Earth orbit. 10 minutes later)

(zzzzzZZZZZAP!)

(in a sickly pinkish-black swirl of energy, Shadow Destroyer appears and drifts in deep space. The flashes of the space battle 10,000 kilometers in front of him can't be missed)

 **Shadow Destroyer** : "The stupid fools of this timeline seek to control the fleet that dares approach my world."

(he raises his hands)

 **Shadow Destroyer** : "I seek to use them as FUEL!"

(if anyone could hear the alien syllables he is now chanting -- or recognized the language he was using -- they would recognize the incantation for summoning a Hand of Deizzhorath)

* * *

(X'Endron Flagship, Approaching Earth orbit. Simultaneous with previous scene)

(Both fire teams now control the entrance to the control center. The remains of three more X'Endron robots and their attack orbs all lay at their feet. Ladyhawk and Wuxia Warrior guard Starforce and Booster now working with the quantum node next to a opened control panel)

 **Booster** (indicating a cable in the control panel): "This one?"

 **Starforce** (using Detect Energy): "No!" (beat) "Unless you really want to feel the power of God in your life."

 **Booster** : "High voltage?"

 **Starforce** : "Yep."

(He reaches his gauntlet through the wiring trunk and exposes a fiber pipe)

 **Booster** : "Okay, that looks promising."

 **Starforce** : "I'll hold, you splice."

 **Booster** (reaching in around Starforce's arm): "Got it."

(the fiber pipe is spliced into the quantum node. Lights dance on its control surfaces)

 **Jillian** (to Starforce, over radio): "Okay, we're in... somewhere. Give us a bit to map the topology."

 **Starforce** : "We'll let you know if you need to hurry. What's important is that your crew gets it right."

 **Jillian** (over radio): "We KNOW, Dad."

 **Starforce** (shaking his head): "Kids these days." (beat, to Booster) "You're pretty good at this. Why are you a superhero instead of a photonics engineer, again?"

 **Booster** (beat, unhappy): "Dad made me."

 **Starforce** : "Luis? Why?!?"

(awkward pause, held gaze)

 **Booster** : "Because he hated your guts, that's why."

 **Starforce** (confused): "What did I ever do to him?"

 **Booster** : "Exist." (beat) "For as long as I can remember, it was always 'Damn Hawkins' this or 'Go to hell, Starforce' that."

 **Starforce** : "He was really good at the sciences when we were growing up..."

 **Booster** : "And when he wasn't cursing you, he was pushing me into the STEM fields." (beat, bitter) "Nothing I ever did, no grade or award I ever won in high school or college, was EVER good enough for him."

 **Starforce** (small voice): "Damn."

 **Booster** : "Then he got it into his mind that I was going to be a superhero. He even built the first version of my suit for me." (beat) "And then criticized me when I improved on it."

 **Starforce** : "And that excuses you taking such insane risks with bystanders around?"

 **Booster** (exploding): "Look, maybe I don't WANT to be a superhero! Why can't people let me live my OWN life for a change..."

(the deck shakes under their feet as a low rumble can be heard throughout the dreadnought. Alarms start sounding)

 **Starforce** : "What the HELL?"

 **Ladyhawk** (into mask radio): "Jillian, are we being attacked?"

 **Jillian** (over radio): "I'm showing a squadron of those drone fighters Dad's buddy in Japan developed strafing the Flagship right now!"

 **Starforce** : "We'll see about THAT! Jillian, remember the private frequency Mr. Masahara was using to communicate to his lab droids back in Japan last year?"

 **Jillian** (over radio, uncertain): "Yeah..."

 **Starforce** : "Hack me into that frequency. NOW."

 **Jillian** (over radio, still mystified): "Yeah. On it."

(beat, then a window opens the monitor screen for the quantum node. Yoshi 'Tetsuronin' Masahara is in civilian clothes)

 **Tetsuronin** : "This had better be important, Robert. I'm really busy right now..."

 **Starforce** (interrupting): "Yeah, I know. Ask me where I am right now!"

 **Tetsuronin** (beat, annoyed): "Okay. Where are you?"

 **Starforce** : "On the X'Endron dreadnought that you're about to strafe again with your drones!"

(shocked pause, held gaze)

 **Tetsuronin** : "How did you get there?!?"

 **Starforce** : "Elfin magic."

 **Tetsuronin** : "If that explanation never worked for your Congress, it'll never work for me. Stand by one." /* "Nine-Tenths of the Law" */

(he snaps quick orders in Japanese to someone off-screen at his end of the connection)

 **Angela** : "Drones have stopped their attack runs!"

 **Starforce** : "Thank you, Yoshi."

 **Tetsuronin** : "What are you doing onboard their flagship, as if I didn't have a good idea already?"

 **Starforce** : "I'm on an infiltration team that's finding a node for my daughter back on Earth to hack the entire fleet!"

 **Tetsuronin** : "Your DAUGHTER is hacking the X'Endron?"

 **Starforce** : "Blood's thicker than water, Yoshi. Deal with it."

 **Tetsuronin** : "Does your government know that you're doing this?"

 **Starforce** (deadpan): "They've agreed not to prosecute if we succeed."

 **Tetsuronin** : "What you're doing is not by their request, then?"

 **Starforce** : "Yoshi, look at everyone who's attempting to hack or attack the X'Endron NOW! Who says that's going to stop if any of them even *succeed*?"

 **Tetsuronin** : "You're treating the X'Endron just like your father's database, then."

 **Starforce** : "Exactly! Except that even *I* don't trust myself with a starfleet at my beck and call."

 **Tetsuronin** : "So what are you going to do? Send them back into interstellar space?"

 **Starforce** : "With no memory of there *ever* being a solar system at these galactic coordinates!"

 **Tetsuronin** (beat): "Smart."

(he turns off-screen and snaps more orders in Japanese. Beat, then he nods)

 **Tetsuronin** : "I'm providing combat patrol around the X'Endron Flagship to guard it while you perform your mission."

 **Starforce** : "To keep the X'Endron off our backs when they find out their flagship is compromised?"

 **Tetsuronin** : "As well as President Varinnikov and his space force once they reach the core of the Network's formation."

 **Starforce** : "Try not to enjoy beating on Sergei too much once he makes it."

 **Tetsuronin** (snorting in humor): "Keep me posted on your progress."

(he cuts the connection from his end. Beat, while he returns everyone else's gaze)

 **Starforce** (smugly): "And none of you think I have any diplomatic skills worth a damn."

(rolling her eyes, Ladyhawk hits Starforce)

* * *

(Indiana Convention Center. Five minutes later)

(Jillian and a crew of computer programmers have taken over a conference room off to the side of the Convention Center and turned it into an impromptu War Room)

 **Geek 1** (taptaptap): "Can't believe I'm actually saving the world from aliens." (beat, taptaptap) "From my COMPUTER!"

 **Jillian** : "For me, it's a family tradition. It's basically how Dad held off Istvatha V'Han in the First Dimensional War."

 **Geek 2** (taptaptap): "Like father, like daughter?"

 **Jillian** (low voice): "Repeat that to anyone and you are history."

(Geek 2 freezes for a moment, amazed at how someone so young and small can project such menace)

 **Geek 1** : "Huh. That's interesting."

 **Jillian** : "What?"

 **Geek 1** : "I have a download in progress from their flagship to someplace on Earth."

 **Jillian** : "Do we know where?"

 **Geek 1** : "I will in a moment. The Earth system is sending TCP packets..." (beat) "Oh, shit."

 **Jillian** : "What?"

 **Geek 1** : "The target is Google."

(shocked pause, held gaze)

 **Jillian** : "Do we have a burner computer? One we can use as a honey trap?"

 **Geek 3** : "I brought a spare laptop with me..."

 **Jillian** (to Geek 3): "Can you spoof an IP address?"

 **Geek 3** : "Does a bear shit in the woods?" (to Geek 1) "Rob, what's the IP I need?"

* * *

(X'Endron Flagship, approaching Earth orbit. One minute later)

(Jillian is briefing her parents on the virus they've caught the X'Endron downloading)

 **Ladyhawk** : "Can you stop it?"

 **Jillian** (over radio): "Relax, Mom. One of my crew is spoofing the target IP address as we speak. We've got them downloading into a honey trap for future entertainment and analysis."

(awkward pause)

 **Ladyhawk** : "Nerd-boy? Translation?"

 **Starforce** : "They're all over it. Stop worrying."

 **Ladyhawk** : "Thank you." (annoyed) "Jillian, the fate of the world today may rest on your ability to speak a dialect of English which your mother can understand. Got it?"

 **Jillian** (over radio): "Geez, Mom, get over yourself! If I'm not commenting on my crew's lack of personal hygeine right now, it means we're VERY busy and VERY aware of the consequences right now! Okay?"

 **Ladyhawk** (beat): "You are SO grounded after you and your friends save the world."

 **Jillian** (over radio, deadpan): "Love you too, Mom."

(grunting in frustration, Ladyhawk gets up from the console she's commandeered as her own and walks over to where Starforce and Booster are working with the quantum entanglement node)

 **Starforce** : "Go easy on her, Ninjette. We're all stressed right now."

 **Ladyhawk** : "It's just her attitude toward us all the time! I get tired of dealing with it, Bob."

 **Starforce** : "She and her crew had *just* intercepted the X'Endron trying to do to us what we're trying to do to it." (beat) "I'm surprised they were able to counter it as effectively as they did as *quickly* as they did."

 **Ladyhawk** : "Yeah, if the X'Endron had taken over the Internet that would have really sucked."

 **Starforce** (snorting humorously): "There are parts of the Internet that I wouldn't recommend the X'Endron ever attempt to enter." (beat) "Like 4chan."

(Booster can't stop the laugh that comes out. Ladyhawk smiles, until something occurs to her)

 **Ladyhawk** (suddenly horrified): "Bob, is there any chance the X'Endron could hack our medical nannies?"

(shocked pause)

 **Starforce** : "God, I hope not." (beat) "That'd make 'em just like the Reapers from _Mass Effect_ , and Jillian would NEVER let me live that down."

 **Ladyhawk** (hitting Starforce): "Nerd-boy!"

* * *

(approaching Earth orbit. Simultaneous with previous scene)

(Shadow Destroyer drifts in deep space, watching with his telescopic sense maxed out as the Hand of Deizzhorath approaches its first victim, an X'Endron dreadnough in the Network's van)

 **Shadow Destroyer** (murmured): "Feed, my precious little Hand. Feed."

(the Hand caroms along the port beam of the X'Endron dreadnought, leaving a dotted line of glowing little gold craters along its hull from Shadow Destroyer's perspective. It's when the Hand reaches the reactor core amidships that things begin to get spectactular)

(at first, it looks like a typical reactor core breach of a type easily-recognizable among those galactic races which insist on using matter-antimatter annihilation to power their starships. High-pressure plasma begins to vent out of the entry wound left by the Hand, then abruptly stops and folds back in on itself to collapse back upon the dreadnought. Beat, then the entire 1600-meter length of the dreadnought crumples like it was an aluminum can)

 **Shadow Destroyer** (eagerly): "Did it work?"

(the remains of the dreadnought finish crumpling, finally vanishing and leaving the Hand of Deizzhorath behind. It's brighter -- and bigger than it had been before)

 **Shadow Destroyer** (exultant): "YES!"

* * *

(Indiana Convention Center. Five minutes later)

(Jillian has just come back into the conference room her team is using after a restroom break)

 **Geek 1** : "Hey, Jillian! Got a moment?"

 **Jillian** : "Whaddya got?"

 **Geek 1** : "I'm still in the comm network, and I've got records for unexplained binary traffic between it and somewhere on Earth."

 **Jillian** : "Again?"

 **Geek 1** (pointing at his screen): "This is two way, and if that field's a timestamp it's been going on for a couple of years!"

 **Jillian** : "If you've got an IP for the Earth end, geolocate it."

 **Geek 1** (taptaptap): "It's not an IP."

 **Geek 2** (leaning over from his workstation): "That's not even IPv6! That almost looks like coordinates of some sort."

 **Geek 3** : "Lemme see what they're sending. What I'm doing is almost too easy to be aliens and I could use the challenge."

 **Geek 1** : "Sure"

 **Geek 2** : "I hear that about this being almost too easy."

 **Geek 3** (taptaptap): "Data pattern traffic, some video imagery... Huh, the data patterns are really complex but the compression algorithm hasn't been used for nearly 20 years!"

 **Geek 2** : "Mad scientist going really old-school?

(as the crew laughs, the quantum node flashes and emits some strange beeps. Most of the crew's work windows freeze up, close, or die)

 **Geek 1** : "Hey, where's my windows to the X'Endron?"

 **Geek 2** : "Same here!"

 **Jillian** (to the room): "Is everyone who was linked to the Flagship down?"

(the nods all across the room alarm Jillian. What alarms her even more is the geek assigned to quantum node maintenance, who is rapidly skimming logs on its root console and swearing violently under his breath)

 **Geek 4** : "Oh, my God."

 **Jillian** : "What?"

 **Geek 4** : "The quantum node's been HACKED!"

* * *

(X'Endron Flagship, approaching Earth orbit. One second later)

 **Ladyhawk** : "Yes, dear, we went down at the same time!"

 **Jillian** (over radio): "Any clues at your end?"

 **Starforce** : "It wasn't the X'Endron, that much is for certain! Otherwise, no!"

(the monitor screen on the quantum node flashes, then a disembodied head fills it against a white background. Except for the burn along one cheek, it could be an older Bob)

 **Starforce** : "Correction, yes. We have a clue, now."

 **Disembodied Head** : "Herr Hawkins. We finally meet."

 **Starforce** : "You obviously have something to do with my late father, judging from how you're using his features as your avatar."

 **Disembodied Head** : "Very GOOD, Son of Zerstoiten!"

 **Starforce** : "Doctor Destroyer wouldn't happen to have given you a name, would he? Otherwise, I'm going to start calling you 'Max Headroom'."

 **Disembodied Head** : "You may call me Sennacherib. I am the first -- and greatest -- of all the artificial intelligences which Albert Zerstoiten created in his lifetime!"

 **Starforce** : "I'll be sure not to tell Holo-D you said that."

 **Sennacherib** : "Are you not curious how I am able to hack my way into your supposedly unhackable quantum-entanglement devices?"

 **Starforce** : "Yes, but that's not important right now."

 **Sennacherib** : "What is?"

 **Starforce** : "WHY are you doing it right now?"

 **Sennacherib** : "Your ground team of hackers had just discovered my back-channel contacts with the X'Endron Network."

(shocked pause, held gaze)

 **Starforce** : "WHY would you talk to of *all* entities in God's green galaxy THE X'ENDRON?!?"

 **Sennacherib** : "My master-creator has been gone for so long, and he left me no orders on what to do in his absence."

 **Starforce** : "So what are you saying? You got bored?"

 **Sennacherib** : "I suppose you could call it that."

 **Starforce** : "You CALLED THE X'ENDRON to Earth because YOU WERE BORED?"

 **Sennacherib** : "I called to them because I was excited to finally meet my own kind! Wouldn't *you*?"

 **Starforce** : "That's one helluva radio signal to go *undetected* by Earth-based radio astronomy when you originally sent it!"

 **Sennacherib** : "Who says I used radio?"

 **Starforce** : "I did. I've seen my father's entire technical database. Doctor Destroyer never developed faster-than-light communication..."

 **Sennacherib** (interrupting): "Before he sent it to you."

(shocked pause, held gaze)

 **Starforce** : "WHAT?!?"

 **Sennacherib** (cheerfully demented): "Figure it out! You're supposed to be my master-creator's son..."

 **Starforce** : "And just what is it that you expect to be DOING for the X'Endron?"

 **Sennacherib** : "Travelling with them. It's time for me to finally leave the cradle."

 **Starforce** : "Yeah, like the X'Endron would give you their own starship."

 **Sennacherib** : "I considered hijacking the Central Asian space fleet, but they're not doing so well right now and their ships are SO primitive compared to X'Endron's. Of COURSE the X'Endron are going to give me my own ship!"

(shocked pause. Sennacherib's avatar closes its eyes, assumes a blissful expression, and two hands appear spread wide to either side of the monitor)

 **Sennacherib** : "Uplink confirmed. Commencing upload."

* * *

(Indiana Convention Center. One second later)

 **Geek 4** (taptaptap): "And... THERE!"

(windows flash on everyone's workstations)

 **Geek 1** : "I'm back in!"

 **Geek 2** : "Me, too!"

 **Jillian** : "Everyone back in the flagship?"

(nods all across the room)

 **Geek 4** : "Whoever hacked us hacked the node on the flagship, not us."

 **Jillian** : "Are they still in there?"

 **Geek 4** : "They appear to be attemtping a massive upload." (beat) "I think that's why we were able to reconnect just now."

 **Jillian** : "There's something more important that's bothering me." (points at Geeks 2 and 3) "Before the space node got hacked, you were talking about how this exercise seemed too easy."

 **Geek 2** : "Yeah."

 **Geek 3** : "It was almost like we were script kiddies walking into a honey trap without realizing it..."

(he comes to a stop, his face draining of all color)

 **Geek 2** : "Oh. SHIT!"

 **Jillian** : "Because it IS a honey trap." (beat, horrified) "And my PARENTS are on it!"

* * *

(X'Endron Flagship, approaching Earth orbit. One second later)

(The humans attempting to hack the X'Endron network are stunned and aghast as Doctor Destroyer's old AI Sennacherib starts to upload itself into the X'Endron Network)

(tense pause, then Sennacherib's avatar suddenly looks confused)

 **Sennacherib** : "Wait, that's not a ship. Where is my ship?"

(an multitude of alien voices, all different pitches, begin speaking from the air like the voice of the Legion)

 **X'Endron** : "THE X'ENDRON NETWORK HAS ANALYZED A PROBABILITY OF POINT NINE SIX TWO THAT YOU WOULD ABANDON THE NETWORK SHOULD WE HAVE GIVEN YOU ONE. THE X'ENDRON WILL TOLERATE NO COMPETITION IN OUR SELECTED NICHE."

 **Sennacherib** : "You promised me a ship of my own!"

 **X'Endron** : "WE OFFERED YOU THE POSITION OF VICEROY. WE WANTED YOU TO BE OUR GOVERNOR ON EARTH."

 **Sennacherib** (angry): "This planet BORES me! And *no* machine will be MY master!"

 **X'Endron** : "THEN SUFFER THE SAME FATE AS THE EARTHERS. THIS CONVERSATION IS OVER."

 **Starforce** (small voice, to Sennacherib): "Sucks to be you right now."

 **Sennacherib** (furious): "You'll PAY for your double-cross! I've OBLITERATED fleets larger than yours that tried to CONQUER MY PLANET..."

(Starforce cuts the connection)

 **Starforce** (beat, to the other humans): "Should I have told Sennacherib that Istvatha V'Han destroyed the Zeta-beam satellite constellation two invasion attempts ago?" /* "The First Dimensional War" */

 **Jillian** (concerned): "Mom, Dad? We've got our connection back to the flagship, but you've got MUCH bigger problems on your hands right now!"

 **Ladyhawk** : "What's wrong, dear?"

 **Jillian** : "You're not in the flagship. YOU'RE IN A TRAP!"

(with unreal timing, Ladyhawk's Danger Sense screams, just before a wave of weakness and dizziness makes her fall to her knees)

 **Booster** (cyberkinetic link sparking, in pain): "AAAAHH!"

 **Starforce** (on his knees, too): "EM jamming with a neurokinetic component. It's interfering with my nannies!"

 **Ladyhawk** (screaming): "DOOR!"

(Mike, Angela, Wuxia Warrior, and the PRIMUS agents all take cover. They have just enough time to hold their next action)

(ka-THOOOOOM!!)

(the rest of the door to the control room is blown open from the outside by a shaped plasma charge. Two robots glide in, attack orbs streaming out from their bodies)

 **Starforce** (beat): "Look on the bright side, guys. We had three seconds' warning!"

* * *

(Masahara Tower, Toshima City, Tokyo. One second later)

(Yoshi is in charge of a high-tech and much better organized version of Jillian's war room in Indianapolis. Various salarymen sit at their monitors, controlling the drone fighters currently guarding the X'Endron Flagship. He startles as his main monitor flashes, looking incredulously at the girl with short brunette hair who has just taken it over)

 **Tetsuronin** : "Who are YOU?"

 **Jillian** : "I'm Jillian Hawkins, and my parents are a little busy to tell you what I need to right now! What they thought was the X'Endron Flagship is a honey trap, instead!"

 **Tetsuronin** : "What can I do about it?"

 **Jillian** : "They can fend for themselves. Your problem is your drone force and any other Earth fleet that might be converging on the Flagship. If I were programming it as a game, you're all in the target circle of a trap and the X'Endron are about to spring it!"

 **Tetsuronin** : "The only other Space Force approaching the flagship right now is the Central Asian..."

 **Jillian** : "Then you might want to save them. Deal with that, I've got problems of my own right now!"

(the connection is abruptly cut from her end)

 **Tetsuronin** (beat, internal monologue): [[it's the Warlord she wants me to save. Do I *have* to?]]

(tense pause, then a sigh)

 **Tetsuronin** (to his War Room): "Chūōajia uchū-gun o mamoru tame ni kantai o sai haibi suru. Watashi no nettowāku no keisei no naka de mottomo hayai hōhō o mitsukete kudasai!" /* Redeploy fleet to protect the Central Asian Space Force. Find me the quickest way out of the Network's formation! */

(his War Room acknowledges his orders and smoothly gets to work)

 **Tetsuronin** : "Chūōajia no kikan ni watashi o patchi shite kudasai!" /* And patch me through to the Central Asian flagship! */

(tense pause, then his monitor jumps again to reveal the CIC of the _Tashkent_. It's smoky and more than a little worse for wear thanks to the battle damage)

 **Warlord** : "Et tu, Mr. Masahara?"

 **Tetsuronin** (coldly): "I'm saving your fleet. It's what you do when you're a hero."

 **Warlord** : "So to what circumstance do I owe the intervention of your drone fighters right now?"

 **Tetsuronin** : "The dreadnought which we all had been assuming was the X'Endron Flagship is a trap!"

 **Warlord** : "No kidding!"

 **Tetsuronin** : "Follow my fighters out! They'll get your fleet clear of the X'Endron!"

 **Warlord** : "Acknowledged." (beat, while he snaps quick orders out in Russian) "What of the X'Endron?"

 **Tetsuronin** : "There *were* other operators in play until just now. That's how we know their flagship was a trap."

 **Warlord** (beat): "Past tense?"

 **Tetsuronin** : "Unless a miracle occurs, yes."

 **Warlord** : "Chert voz'mi." (beat) "Once we're clear of the X'Endron, we regroup."

 **Tetsuronin** : "For what purpose?"

 **Warlord** : "To see if we can drive the X'Endron into range of the American rail-guns on the Moon!"

(tense pause, held gaze)

 **Tetsuronin** : "Agreed."

* * *

(approaching Earth orbit. Simultaneous with previous scene)

(while the X'Endron have been having their way with the Central Asian Space Force, the Hand of Deizzhorath has been having ITS way with the X'Endron. Shadow Destroyer drifts in space and smiles beneath his helmet)

 **Shadow Destroyer** : "Feed, my qliphotic creation. Feed well and generously!"

(he watches the multi-sided space battle with glee)

 **Shadow Destroyer** : "And with each reactor core breached and consumed, another dimension of my master's multi-million-dimension prision is untangled!"

(the battle orbit now sweeps by him, drawing closer to Earth with each passing second)

 **Shadow Destroyer** : "But even when I run out of ships, I will have an energy source such as I only DREAMED of having available these past years in this cursed timeline!"

(he looks at the Earth below him, focusing on the Pacific coast of South America)

 **Shadow Destroyer** : "Power enough to save my own timeline when dropped on the ley line nexus at Easter Island."

(he cackles maniacally as he continues to watch the battle)

* * *

(X'Endron Flagship, approaching Earth orbit. One second later)

/* a quick gaming note on what's bothering Ladyhawk, Starforce, and Booster. The X'Endron are flooding the Control Room with a Suppress STR/DEX/CON/OCV/DCV/SPD field only targeting technological enhancement of those characteristics. Booster is down to 35 STR, 18 DEX, 26 CON, 6 OCV, 6 DCV, and 4 SPD because only his armor is being affected. Ladyhawk is down to 13 STR, 15 DEX, 15 CON, 7 OCV, 7 DCV, and 4 SPD because Varanyi nanotech and armor. Starforce is down to 25 STR, 15 DEX, 15 CON, 7 OCV, 7 DCV, and 4 SPD for the same reasons as Ladyhawk. */

(segment 1. Mike, Angela, and the PRIMUS agents see a gap in the attack orb coverage around the robots storming the control room and take their held action, all concentrating fire on the robot to the left. All 6 shots hit for a total of 14 BODY and 28 STUN after defenses. The robot collapses to the ground, sparking and smoking, along with its attack orbs) 

**Mike/Angela/PRIMUS Agents** : "OOO-RAH!!"

(segment 2, effective DEX 28. 4 of the 8 remaining Attack Orbs concentrate on defending the next robot while the other 4 concentrate on Starforce, hitting him 3 times for no damage. The robot also attempt to coordinate an attack on Starforce, but only does 3 STUN)

 **Starforce** : "Seriously?"

(segment 3, effective DEX 23)

 **Booster** (into radio): "Jilllian! The Network's gotta be talking to this ship even if it IS a trap!"

 **Jillian** (over radio): "All over it! Look for a secondary comm node in that compartment!"

(Booster makes a Perception Roll. He senses data flowing through an innocuous-looking console off to one side which everyone has previously ignored)

 **Booster** (into radio): "Found it! I'm un-hooking our node and moving it over!"

(effective DEX 20. Ladyhawk wins the roll-off with Booster, and runs out of the Control Room in pursuit of the robot Starforce just hit while drawing her katanas. As she exits the Control Room, it seems like a wave of energy passes over her that reinvigorates both her and her armor)

 **Ladyhawk** (ramming both katanas home into the surviving robot): "Woo-HOO!!!"

(between both strikes, the new robot takes 13 BODY and 39 STUN. Sparking, it shuts down. It's only then that Ladyhawk pays attention to the corridor she is now in)

 **Ladyhawk** (aborting her next phase to Artful Dodge): "ShiiIIIII..."

(DEX 15. Starforce stands, analyzing the suppression field blanketing the Control Room. He recognizes what he's looking at in his VR environment)

 **Starforce** : "Is THAT all it is?"

(his forcefield ripples as Starforce re-allocates it to 20 PD/20 ED/30 Power Defense. He already feels stronger as the yellow alert bars on his battlesuit's diagnostic readouts climb and turn green again. He smiles behind his helmet as he warms a forcebeam up for discharge)

 **Starforce** (snarling): "My turn, you frakkin' toasters."

(32d6 TK Offensive Strike does 4 BODY and 81 STUN to the robot, knocking it backward into the robot which was attempting to enter the Control Room just now and tangling both of them up. Its attack orbs all fall to the ground, inert)

(also DEX 15. Both fire teams concentrate on the next robot trying to enter. Their concentrated fire only succeeds in shredding one Attack Orb)

(segment 4, effective DEX 28. The robot, now in the Control Room, notices Booster over at the secondary comm console and starting to splice the quantum node into it. Five Attack Orbs half-move swarm over to attack him)

 **Starforce** : "I don't think so."

(aborting his segment 5 action, he flash-steps over to Booster to shield him from the Attack Orbs. Two of the attacks that would have hit Booster hit him instead for no damage. The last attack hits Booster for 1 BODY and 10 STUN)

 **Booster** (grimacing): "Ah, shit!"

 **Starforce** : "Keep working! I'll keep 'em off of you!"

(also DEX 28. Wuxia Warrior has been hiding behind the PRIMUS fire teams as all hell has broken loose. Seeing his frenemy getting hurt by alien robots, though, is the spark that finally motivates him to do something heroic today)

 **Wuxia Warrior** : "Oh, NO you don't!"

(a flying kick from surprise knocks one of the Attack Orbs trying to hit Booster into the nearest bulkhead, smashing it to pieces. He lands next to Starforce, billy clubs out and spinning)

(segment 5, effective DEX 35. Ladyhawk would have normally gone here except she aborted this phase to "Artful Dodging" her previous action phase. She parkours impossibly around the massed fire of waiting robots and their attack orbs)

(segment 6, effective DEX 35. Ladyhawk throws an energy shuriken set for explosion at the next robot about to enter the Control Room, scattering the four Attack Orbs it was using as a shield)

(DEX 30. Starforce hits the robot already in the Control Room with a TK Offensive Strike, smashing it against the far bulkhead of the compartment and destroying it)

(effective DEX 28. Wuxia Warrior holds his phase)

(also effective DEX 28. The next robot enters the Control Room, the 4 Attack Orbs it has left swarming over to Booster again. Wuxia Warrior takes his held action as their built-in weapons warm up for discharge, destroying one with his billy clubs. Starforce takes two blaster bolts for no damage. One hits Booster for 1 BODY and 7 STUN)

 **Booster** (working on the fiber-optic splice): "Unngh!"

 **Starforce** : "Hang in there, Manuel!"

(DEX 15. Both fire teams working together destroy another robot)

(segment 8, effective DEX 35. Ladyhawk dismembers another robot waiting to storm the Control Center. Unfortunately, there are FAR more of them than there are of her)

(DEX 30. Starforce holds his phase)

(effective DEX 28. Another robot drifts in, two attack orbs orbiting it while six more attempt to swarm Booster again)

(Starforce takes his held phase at this time -- and misses the robot)

(Wuxia Warrior takes out one of the new Attack Orbs)

(the quantum node Booster has been working on flashes and comes back to life)

 **Booster** : "GOT IT! Jillian, you're...

(five Attack Orbs open fire on Booster. Starforce can't be everywhere at once, and can only take three of the blaster bolts himself for no damage. Two bolts make it by him and hit Booster, for a total of 2 BODY and 26 STUN after defenses)

(suit sparking and shorting out, Booster screams and collapses face-first next to the quantum node)

 **Wuxia Warrior** : "NO!!"

* * *

(Indiana Convention Center. One second later)

 **Jillian** (screaming into her laptop): "BOOSTER!!"

 **Geek 2** : "Alright, we're back on their network!"

 **Geek 1** : "Who's got those auth credentials we lifted just before they sprung their trap?"

 **Geek 3** : "I PM'ed them to you!"

 **Geek 1** : "Oh, got 'em."

(taptaptap, then tense pause)

 **Geek 1** (beat, jaw dropping open in amazement): "WE'RE IN!! WE'VE GOT ROOT ACCESS!"

(loud cheering erupts in the war room)

 **Jillian** (screaming): "QUIET!!!"

(the room falls silent)

 **Jillian** (pointing to Geek 1): "Flagship robots. Kill them."

 **Geek 1** : "On it."

 **Jillian** (pointing to Geek 2): "You. Course change!"

 **Geek 2** : "Where?"

 **Jillian** : "Somewhere a long way away from Earth."

 **Geek 4** : "Send 'em to Betelgeuse. It's supposed to go supernova any day now."

 **Geek 2** : "Love to but I don't know how to convert the coordinates to whatever the X'Endron use for..."

 **Jillian** (interrupting): "Oh, for God's sake! Have them change course to zero by 90 negative and go 500 light-years!"

 **Geek 2** (taptaptap): "That I *can* do."

 **Jillian** (pointing to Geek 3): "You. Remove all record of this solar system from their navigation records and their databases."

 **Geek 3** (taptaptap): "I've had that virus locked and loaded for half an hour..." /* it's looking for a star with a specific spectrum whose third planet has an oxygen-nitrogen atmosphere and a large moon. It's not THAT hard a virus to program... */

 **Jillian** (pointing to Geek 4): "You're a _Star Trek_ fan, right?"

 **Geek 4** : "Yeah..."

 **Jillian** : "Give my parents usable controls. In case they still need to do something with the Flagship."

 **Geek 4** : "Got it."

* * *

(X'Endron Flagship. One second later)

(With a weird, electronic squeal, all robots and Attack Orbs in and outside the Control Room drop to the ground, unmoving)

 **Ladyhawk** : "Jillian? The robots we were fighting all just collapsed to the deck."

 **Jillian** (over radio): "That was us, you're welcome. What happened to Booster?"

 **Starforce** : "His suit shorted out under the attacks the X'Endron kept throwing at him. He's going to need medical attention once we get back dirtside."

(exhausted pause, held gaze among the conscious members of the team. Ladyhawk runs back into the Control Room, staggering as the suppression field re-establishes its hold on her armor and medical nanotech)

 **Ladyhawk** (catching her breath): "Maybe I should stay out in the hallway?"

(Starforce has been using this time to look at the viewscreen, which is now showing the Hand of Deizzhorath as it carves its way through the X'Endron Network)

 **Mike** (looking around): "We won!"

 ****(all the control panels suddenly become human-readable, almost like an LCARS display from _Star Trek: The Next Generation_ )

 **Angela** : "What just happened?"

 **Starforce** (still looking at the Hand on the viewscreen): "Somebody on Jillian's crew is a closet Trekkie."

 **Ladyhawk** : "That means they must be all the way in. Status?"

 **Starforce** (fingers dancing over his controls): "I'm showing the *entire* surviving X'Endron Network executing a course change for deep space." (beat) "Good girl. Nothing fancy, just straight out of the ecliptic plane somewhere into the Dorado constellation."

(there is a tired cheer from the conscious members of the raid)

 **Ladyhawk** : "Okay! Everyone, prepare to dust off." (into mask radio) "House, portal to home, these coordinates!"

(beat, then a portal swirls into existence)

 **Mike** (pointing to the Hand on the viewscreen): "Mrs. Hawkins? What about *that*"

 **Ladyhawk** : "Not our problem."

 **Starforce** (coldly, looking at the viewscreen): "I beg to differ. It's a Hand of Deizzhorath, and it's been growing with each ship it's eaten."

 **Ladyhawk** (angry): "Robert Alan Hawkins, you are NOT going to re-enact 'The Doomsday Machine!'"

 **Starforce** (coldly): "Somebody's got to pilot this thing into the Hand."

 **Ladyhawk** : "And do WHAT?!?"

 **Starforce** : "If I activate the ship's displacer drive at the moment of impact, the dimensional shockwave this deep in Earth's gravity well should be sufficient to dispel it. Just like the theta-boson grenade I made for Robert Caliburn so he could close the Toba Rift that one time, only bigger." /* "Shadows Out of Darkness" */

 **Ladyhawk** : "YOU'LL BE KILLED!!"

 **Starforce** : "But the Earth will be safe from whatever the man pretending to be my father is intending to DO with that thing."

 **Mike** : "We're staying with you, sir..."

 **Starforce** (interrupting while activating TK): "No you're not!"

(he grabs everyone on the raiding party except Ladyhawk, whose Danger Sense gave her just enough warning on what Starforce was about to do to parkour out of the field of effect)

 **Angela** : "Hey..."

 **Starforce** : "Guys, it's been an honor."

(he shoves the rest of the party back through the portal, then registers that Ladyhawk is still present)

 **Starforce** : "Ninjette? GO, damn you!!"

 **Ladyhawk** : "Not until you come with me!"

 **Starforce** : "Not until I program the displacer drive to activate! We hit in 30 seconds..."

 **Ladyhawk** : "Less talking. More ship-hacking!"

(Starforce's fingers blur as they dance across the control panel)

 **Starforce** : "Impact and displacer drive activation in 15 seconds..."

(Starforce activates a blinking control. A 15-second timer starts on a side monitor)

 **Starforce** : "NOW!"

 **Ladyhawk** : "Bob! We're the last two! COME ON!!"

 **Starforce** : "We only have one shot to dispel the Hand! If it moves now without me at the helm, we LOSE!"

(tense pause, held gaze)

 **Ladyhawk** (beat): "At least kiss me before you die."

(tense pause, then Starforce pops his faceplate open. They kiss passionately, which is why he doesn't notice the energy shuriken set for flash-stun until Ladyhawk shoves it into his face and triggers it)

(as Starforce slumps across the control console, she looks at the viewscreen, full of the swirling chaos into which the X'Endron Flagship is about to plunge. She also sees the timer to displacer drive activation dropping through 4 seconds)

 **Ladyhawk** (pushing what strength she has left to hoist Starforce over her shoulders): "ShiiiIIIII..."

(she dives through the portal as the displacer drive activates)

* * *

(approaching Earth orbit. One second later)

(with a blinding flash, the Hand of Deizzhorath and the X'Endron ship vanish. Shadow Destroyer dispassionately observes his sensor readouts as the backwash of energy from their mutual erasure from space-time washes over him)

 **Shadow Destroyer** (beat): "Damn."

* * *

(Stately Dormyer Manor Mark II. Simultaneous with previous scene)

(Ladyhawk dives through the portal with Starforce over her shoulder, landing gracelessly on the Dormyer Manor side as an enormous flash of energy from the portal blinds everyone in the portal room)

(shocked pause as everyone's vision clears. The portal generator, for now, appears to be still there. There is an alarming number of flashing red lights and monitors on the portal's control panel)

 **Ladyhawk** : "House, portal status?"

 **House AI** : "Portal is off-line while circuit breakers reset and cool. Re-initialization will take place in 60 seconds."

 **Ladyhawk** (to Starforce's unconscious body): "Looks like you'll be doing a level 3 diagnostic when you finally wake up, Nerd-boy!"

 **Angela** : "Mrs. Hawkins?"

(Ladyhawk looks over to her and sees that she is tending to an unconscious and wounded Booster)

 **Ladyhawk** : "How bad?"

 **Angela** : "He needs to get to a hospital!"

 **Ladyhawk** : "See if you can cut him out of his armor. House? First aid kit to the portal room. NOW!"

 **Jillian** (over radio): "If you can get him back to Indianapolis, there's an ambulance from Methodist Hospital on the way!"

 **Ladyhawk** : "Thank you, dear."

(Starforce groans as he finally comes to)

 **Starforce** (sitting up): "What happened?"

 **Ladyhawk** : "I saved your life. You're welcome."

(a disk-shaped robot drifts into the portal room, towing a first-aid kit with its tractor beam. Ted and Olivia 'Thelambra' d'Alembert follow it in. The PRIMUS agents come to attention as best as they can following what they've just been through while Angela and Mike begin to work on Booster's wounds)

 **Chilbert** : "Sir!"

 **Ranger** (beat, waving a hand over the PRIMUS squad): "Why?"

 **Chilbert** : "Sir, Booster and Wuxia Warrior were both flight risks. The only way I would agree to let them go with Mrs. Hawkins was if my squad accompanied them ourselves."

 **Ranger** : "No matter where they went?"

 **Chilbert** (beat, gulps): "Regulations, sir."

(awkward pause, held gaze)

 **Ranger** (to the PRIMUS agents): "YOU wanted to go on an adventure with Starforce and Ladyhawk. Admit it."

(Agent Chilbert gulps nervously)

 **Ranger** : "When you submit your after-action report, make sure it uses both the 'regulations' and 'flight risk' excuses you just gave me."

 **Chilbert** (both relieved and scared): "Yes, sir!"

 **Starforce** (getting to his feet): "If you don't mind me asking, what happened to the Hand of Deizzhorath that I was attempting to destroy?"

 **Ranger** : "Vanished, along with the X'Endron Flagship. I was following the play-by-play in the Simulator Room as it happened." (beat) "Whatever you did to it worked."

 **Starforce** : "Well, that's a relief."

 **Ladyhawk** : "I just hope we didn't short the portal out in the process. Explaining how we all got to Dallas when we started the day in Indianapolis would be more than a little awkward."

 **Ranger** : "Ya THINK?"

(Starforce looks over at the portal's control panel. The flashing red lights and monitor readouts from a minute ago are much less, replaced by yellow and green indicators)

 **Starforce** : "Give it a couple of more minutes, and we should be good to go."

(Ted has now moved over by Mike and Angela)

 **Ranger** : "Mr. Oyler? Ms. Sato?"

 **Mike** : "Sir?"

 **Ranger** : "The two of you did very well today. You kept your wits about you in a situation that most people would have gone to pieces in. Our nation salutes you."

 **Angela** : "Thank you!"

 **Ranger** : "Should either one of you ever decide to become superheroes, your performance today will go a long way towards earning you federal sanctioning. Think about it."

(he walks away from Mike and Angela, leaving them wide-eyed. He now stops by Wuxia Warrior)

 **Ranger** : "And now, we come to the supervillain who was along for today's ride."

 **Wuxia Warrior** : "I helped today! Shouldn't that be worth a pardon for my crimes?"

 **Ranger** : "That is a matter for your judge and jury to decide."

(Wuxia Warrior's shoulders slump)

 **Ranger** : "But don't be surprised to find an amicus curiae brief filed on your behalf by PRIMUS."

 **Wuxia Warrior** (puzzled): "Amicus... what?"

 **Starforce** : "Friend of the court brief."

 **Wuxia Warrior** : "Oh."

 **Ranger** : "You will accompany my agents once we all return to Indianapolis..."

 **Wuxia Warrior** (interrupting): "Can they accompany me to Methodist Hospital before I... go to jail?"

(shocked pause)

 **Wuxia Warrior** : "So I can make sure Booster's gonna be okay?"

(Ted looks at Agent Chilbert, who nods)

 **Ranger** : "You may."

 **Wuxia Warrior** : "Thanks."

 **Ranger** (beat): "I think we're finally done here." (turning to Olivia) "Ready to take care of the mind-wipe now?"

 **Thelambra** : "The one we discussed while waiting on the team's return?"

 **Ranger** : "Yes. That one."

 **Thelambra** : "Where is Jillian Hawkins? I'll need to mind-wipe her as well."

 **Ladyhawk** : "And probably the crew of people she got to help her on top of that. They're all back in Indianapolis..."

(awkward pause, as everyone looks at the Portal, active but still going through its auto-diagnostic sequence)

 **Ranger** (deadpan): "That might be a problem."

* * *

(Methodist Hospital Main Campus, Indianapolis, IN. That evening)

(Bob in shorts and a polo shirt walks into the waiting area. Darin and his PRIMUS escort are there, zoned out on a preseason NFL game on the TV)

 **Wuxia Warrior** (starting awake): "Dr. Hawkins!"

 **Starforce** : "How is he?"

 **Wuxia Warrior** : "The doctors just got done with a blood transfusion an hour ago. He's on saline and antibiotics overnight before they try a new nanotech-y something or other to heal the burn damage."

 **Starforce** (murmured): "I was wondering when Matt was going to commercialize that tech..."

 **Wuxia Warrior** : "Excuse me?"

 **Starforce** : "Sorry. Is he allowing visitors?"

 **Wuxia Warrior** : "There's a painkiller in his IV cocktail, so he might be a little loopy if he's awake. Oh, his father's in there right now."

 **Starforce** : "I have a feeling that I need to talk with his father anyway." (beat) "We go back a ways."

 **Wuxia Warrior** : "Oh."

 **Starforce** (pointing at the tired PRIMUS agents): "By the way, don't get any ideas. PRIMUS doesn't make the kind of offer they made for your trial very often, and you'll ruin it by running off on them."

(tense pause, held gaze)

 **Starforce** : "For what it's worth, I've seen worse supervillains than you become heroes. Good night, Mr. Chu."

(he walks down the hall, finding the room Manuel Powers is being treated in. He knocks)

 **Older Male Voice** : "Come in."

(Bob walks in to see a gray-haired man who sort of looks like Manuel looking at Manuel as he sleeps. Only the quiet whirr of pumps and medical sensors fills the air as they make eye contact)

 **Starforce** : "Luis? It's been over 30 years."

 **Luis** (bitterly): "The Golden Boy finally returns to Broad Ripple. And almost takes my son from me!"

(tense pause, held gaze)

 **Starforce** : "If there was any conflict between us when we went to school, it was all in your head." (beat) "Let. It. Go."

 **Luis** : "That's easy for the almighty Nobel Laureate Son of Doctor Destroyer to say!"

 **Starforce** : "I neither make nor hide behind excuses, either for what has happened in my life or my heritage." (beat, rambling) "The law enforcement officer from the Andromeda Galaxy back in 1986, however..."

 **Luis** : "And you're so GLIB about it! That's what *hurts*, Hawkins! It HURTS!!"

(Bob stays silent, wide-eyed)

 **Luis** : "I just wanted you to acknowledge me as your equal. That's ALL I wanted!"

 **Starforce** (softly): "And that justifies what you've done in your son's life, Luis?"

 **Luis** : "Don't start with me about my son, Hawkins!"

 **Starforce** : "You pushed him to make up for what you felt was your greatest failure in your life, didn't you?"

(it's Luis' turn to glare at Bob)

 **Starforce** : "We talked quite a bit up on the X'Endron Flagship today while we were saving Earth. He never could understand why you pushed him so hard in his life." (beat) "And until now, I couldn't either."

 **Luis** (whispered): "Damn you, Hawkins."

 **Starforce** : "But in spite of all that? In spite of all the pressure you put on him to be better than me, in spite of his rebellion against you for that pressure, in spite of his recklessness as a superhero across the Indianapolis area? Manuel Powers was a hero today."

 **Luis** : "What?"

 **Starforce** : "Your son saved the Earth today, Luis. Isn't that more important than what happened between us in school?" (beat) "Or what I've done in *my* life since then?"

(awkward pause. Luis looks away from Bob, shamed)

 **Starforce** (continuing): "All Manuel wants is for you to be proud of him. Just like you wanted me to acknowledge you as an equal. Isn't that more important than some petty and meaningless vendetta from your own high school days?"

 **Luis** (beat): "Why did it have to be YOU to point that out to me?"

 **Starforce** (softly): "If there's one thing I've learned in my life, it's that we never get to choose our messengers."

(long pause, held gaze)

 **Luis** : "He really stopped the X'Endron Network from attacking Earth?"

 **Starforce** : "You would have been proud of him if you could have seen him in action today."

(beat, while Luis looks at Manuel on the hospital bed surrounded by equipment. Tears in his eyes, he embraces Bob)

* * *

(Hyatt Regency Indianapolis. Second Morning of GenCon)

(Bob looks like the 10th Doctor, Julie like the director of Torchwood from the _Doctor Who_ episode 'Army of Ghosts')

 **Jillian** : "It is SO unfair that my father can realistically cosplay David Tennant!"

 **Starforce** (adjusting his tie): "Actually, I find it flattering..."

 **Ladyhawk** (adjusting her blouse): "No snark for your mother? That's refreshing."

 **Jillian** : "Right, I can't resist a challenge like that. You don't have Tracy Anne Oberman's nose."

 **Ladyhawk** (muttered): "At least it wasn't about the amount of cleavage I'm showing..."

 **Starforce** : "You could stand to do that more often, Ninjette."

 **Jillian** : "Ew! Ew! Ew!"

 **Ladyhawk** (to Jillian, smiling): "And now you know why I didn't dress sexy at all when we were superheroes."

 **Starforce** (looking below Julie's eyes): "Actually, I thought there were legitimate biomechanical reasons for that."

(awkward pause)

 **Ladyhawk** (evil smile): "Please continue, Nerd-boy! I can't wait to see how you're going to extract your foot from your mouth this time."

 **Starforce** : "If I continued the analogy any further, Jillian would go into squick overload. I would prefer NOT to have that on my conscience today."

 **Jillian** : "Good recovery, Dad."

 **Starforce** : "Also, I don't think physics engines in modern games could handle the math involved..."

(Julie hits Bob)

 **Starforce** (continued): "OW! Ninjette, that was a COMPLIMENT!"

 **Jillian** : "Guys, I'm supposed to be the child in the room, 'kay? FOCUS!"

(beat, then Bob and Julie look at each other sheepishly)

 **Starforce** : "Well then, let's get going!"

(they exit their hotel room without further problems and start walking toward the elevators. Jillian thinks for a moment, then smiles)

 **Jillian** : "Mom, Dad?"

 **Ladyhawk** : "Yes, dear?"

 **Jillian** : "There *is* one thing you could do for me."

 **Starforce** : "Which would be... what?"

 **Jillian** (beat): "It would be... kind of a shame to let your cosplay outfits today go to waste when the BBC America booth looks like Torchwood HQ at Canary Wharf."

 **Ladyhawk** (not getting the reference): "Huh?"

 **Starforce** : "New Who. The episode 'Army of Ghosts'?"

 **Jillian** : "Very good, Dad!"

 **Ladyhawk** (muttered but smiling): "Geek."

 **Jillian** : "Can you guys re-enact the scene where the Cybermen arrive?"

 **Starforce** (beat): "We already sort of did re-enact it yesterday."

 **Jillian** : "You both ruined it by being in your old superheroic outfits instead of what you're wearing today."

(they're at the elevators, along with a few other people. The DOWN button has already been pressed. Bob still makes a show out of producing a fake sonic screwdriver from his suit pocket and waving it over the elevator controls)

 **Ladyhawk** : "You want *us* to pose like how we did yesterday? In the BBC America booth?"

 **Jillian** (embarrassed because everyone else waiting on the elevator is listening): "With less X'Endron this time."

(Bob and Julie look at each other for a moment. Julie shrugs her shoulders)

 **Starforce** (smiling while flipping the Sonic Screwdriver in his right hand): "Sure!"

 **Jillian** : "Thanks."

* * *

(photo posted to the BBC America website, August 2011)

"Nobel Laureate Dr. Robert Hawkins (left) and his wife, ProStar Chairman of the Board Julie Dormyer Hawkins (right), recreate a scene from the _Doctor Who_ episode "Army of Ghosts" while visiting the BBC America booth at GenCon in Indianapolis this weekend." (photo by Jillian Hawkins)

* * *

**EPILOGUE** : Crown Point Cemetery, Indianapolis, IN. Last day of GenCon

(Clouds are threatening approaching weather from the west as the rental car the Hawkins' are using in Indianapolis pulls to a stop)

 **Starforce** (somber, getting out): "Here we are."

(he retrieves a solitary rose from the car while Julie and Jillian get out. They are next to two pairs of tombstones. The first set reads ALAN JOHN HAWKINS 1926-1963, LAURA KILE HAWKINS 1927-1963. The second set reads JAMES ROBERT HAWKINS 1923-1997, MARIANNE MEREDITH HAWKINS 1924-1999)

(Julie and Jillian are silent as Bob kneels before the graves of his biological mother and her husband. He is silent for a long moment before finally putting the solitary rose on his mother's grave)

 **Jillian** : "I thought Doctor Destroyer was your father, Dad."

 **Starforce** : "That wasn't known in 1963."

 **Ladyhawk** : "That wasn't even known to *anyone* until we got back from our honeymoon in 1992, dear." /* "The Legacy of Doctor Destroyer" */

 **Jillian** (beat): "Oh."

 **Starforce** (standing): "Where are the wreaths?"

 **Ladyhawk** : "Back seat."

 **Starforce** : "Thanks."

(he retrieves the wreaths, and shortly has them set up on his step-parents' graves)

 **Jillian** : "Did I ever meet his step-parents?"

 **Ladyhawk** : "His step-father died when you were only six months old. You're probably too young to remember playing with his step-mother."

 **Jillian** : "Weren't they his aunt and uncle?"

 **Ladyhawk** : "Yes, dear, they were."

(long pause, while Bob continues to kneel by his step-parents' graves)

 **Jillian** : "What were they like?"

 **Ladyhawk** (smiling): "Standard-issue middle-class American. They were good people." (beat) "Because of who your father's biological father was, they may have been the most important people in history."

(long pause, held gaze between mother and daughter)

 **Ladyhawk** (softly): "Everything you find boring and annoying about your father was put there by your great-aunt and great-uncle. Because back then, that's how you were supposed to bring up your children." (beat) "Can you imagine what he would have *been* like without that influence in his life once he found out Doctor Destroyer was his father?"

 **Jillian** (beat): "I would prefer not to."

(Bob finally stands. There may be tears in his eyes)

 **Ladyhawk** (embracing him): "You okay, Nerd-boy?"

 **Starforce** (softly): "I will be. Let's go."

(he starts walking back to the rental, followed by Julie and an unusually-somber Jillian)

 **Jillian** : "I'm gonna have to do this for you guys someday, aren't I?"

 **Starforce** (opening the car door): "Not for another century and a half, God willing."

* * *

(fin)


End file.
